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Making Listening to Voices More Doable



This is an introduction to +Steve Brophy and I's presentation 'Listening to Voices In and Out of the Classroom' for #DLTV2014 and explains what we mean by 'voice' and its relationship with technology ...

It is so easy to consider technology as the answer, that missing solution, that panacea that will somehow manage to solve all education's ills. However, there is no tool or technique that will magically solve all our problems for us. Instead, technology is a support, an addition, a supplement, something that helps us do what we do, but better. In regards to Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model, this change revolves around 'redefining' what we do. Providing a possibility for something that was often deemed impossible. +Bill Ferriter suggests, "technology lowers barriers, making the kinds of higher order learning experiences that matter infinitely more doable."

Importantly, the changes brought about by technology are not about simply dispelling the past. For as Ferriter argues, many of those attributes that get lumped with the call for reform are things that highly effective teachers have been doing for years. Various higher order thinking skills, such as the engagement in collaborative dialogue, solving complex problems and manipulating multiple streams of information, are not new.

Take the act of publishing for example. After consulting with a teacher from another state +Cameron Paterson got his Year 9 History class to create picture books around the topic of World War 1 for a kindergarten. While +Bianca Hewes used Blurb, a site that allows you to create both eBooks and physical books, to publish her student's stories for a wider audience. There is nothing new about composing texts for an audience. Technology though allows us to publish to a more authentic audience more easily.

Another particular area where technology allows for a change is in regards to capturing the different voices associated with learning. Whether it be communicating or collaborating, there are many different scenarios involving listening and responding to voices in and out of the classroom. Voices have always had a central role in the classroom for at its heart, learning is a social activity. However, instead of conversations being dictated by the few, technology democratises the whole process, it takes away some of the social pressures and tedious silences when no one is willing to respond. Technology makes it more doable.

We feel that there are three different categories when it comes to listening to voices in education:

  • Students communicating and collaborating with each other
  • Students and teachers in dialogue about learning
  • Teachers connecting as a part of lifelong learners

As with any sort of arbitrary division there will always be examples which go across categories. However, splitting things in this way helps to highlight some different spaces and situations where voices can be heard and provides a foundation on which we can continue the conversation.


So to the big question, how are you listening to different voices in and out of the classroom? And in what ways does technology make this more doable?
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